RED DEER – When it comes to buying pork, butts are out and steaks are in.
“When people think of pork, they think of bacon, ham and pork loins,” said Roy Kruse, manager of consumer services for Alberta Pork.
With name changes for cuts like butt to blade, pork sales are holding up against beef as more consumers seek out new items at the meat counter, said Kruse.
The most recent numbers from Statistics Canada report annual per capita pork consumption is nearly 27 kilograms. Beef is around 31 kg.
A coup for the producers’ association has been a two-year partnership with Alberta professional sports teams to offer specialty sausages, dry ribs and pork sandwiches in stadium concessions.
Known as Pork Sports, the meat is offered at concessions along with pork promotional items this season at Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers games where about 1.4 million people enter the turnstiles.
The Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos joined the pork bandwagon last year.
Last year, concessions in Edmonton sold 40,000 pork items.
